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Tuesday, January 21, 2014

These Broken Stars by Amie KaufmanMy rating: 5 of 5 starsRamblings. This book has been sitting in my to read list and e-book reader since December and now I'm mentally cursing myself for NOT reading it last year! My 2013 could’ve ended with a blast because of this totally unique and amazing book! Immediate thought after reading this book. WOW. Yes, just wow. I think, These Broken Stars is the first book that I’ve read since November 2013 coming from this genre and it obviously didn’t disappoint me. I hope this enthusiasm that I felt while reading this book will carry on and eventually lead me on into concentrating on the YA books on my to read list. Help me bring back my YA feels, please! My thoughts. If you didn’t know that this book was written by two authors, I tell you that it wouldn’t even cross your mind once you start reading this. Everything in the book was just woven seamlessly. I can say, that this is really a beautifully and well-written book with an utterly unique concept. This book offers a complete package of Action, Suspense (thrill for that unknown matter) and Romance. Reading this book was definitely a very cool experience for me. Every chapter just resonates the various elements included in this book and fully evokes the different emotions within us, readers. When I started reading the first few pages of this book, I admit it that I wasn’t able to immediately grasp on the imagery and setting of the story. I don’t know about you but everything in the beginning seems to be all so sudden. I didn’t feel being little by little eased in into the world of the story. I seriously don’t have a clue as to what they’re really talking about. Not to worry though, because everything will just make you curious and will keep you from turning page after page of the book. Uhh but it could’ve been better if the authors included a smidge of background or something about the hyperspace and how that world came up to be. These Broken Stars is mainly about Lilac and Tarver venturing and trying to survive in an unknown planet after the Icarus, the luxury spaceliner they were in, suffered from a major hyperspace catastrophe. That scene where the Icarus went crazy and crash landing, it certainly reminded me of the Titanic but it’s the end of that similarity. The story is told from the dual POVs of Lilac and Tarver, with both characters having such distinct voices. I didn’t have to deal with that problem of questioning as to who’s narrating the story. The dual POVs really worked well with not only in relaying to us the whole post-Icarus experience but it really aids the readers in getting to know both of their characters. And yes, you’ll be able to really get to know them and later on feel for them. Feel their happiness, fear and sadness. With their characters coming from two different backgrounds (- of Lilac being the daughter of the richest man in the universe and Tarver being the war hero, who pretty much did everything he can to be able to get to where he is now), we are treated with a front row seat on how their relationship blossomed. Their relationship is probably the highlight of this book. Considering the difference in their upbringing and personality, it makes their survival story much entertaining. It feels like survival in two aspects: surviving in that planet and surviving in each other’s company. Lilac’s character may seem to be annoying at first with her decisions and how she deals with stuff but she redeems herself as the story progresses. We eventually know the back story of why she was like that and hands down to her character for being really valuable in their quest to send a distress signal to the authorities. She isn’t just a girl who loves fancy dresses and parties but she’s actually a very knowledgeable young lady. As for Tarver, we see his character as a strong man whose mind can work and think of tactics for a way out in certain tricky circumstances in life but we also see the softness in him in this book. We see his love of poetry and definitely for his family. Tarver’s a verrrrrry swoon-worthy character, in words and in action. I love those scenes where he puts his hand on Lilac’s shoulder and it just feels normal for him to do it. Ehh and many more scenes. Swoon. Warning. It’s not all about rainbows and unicorns in the romance element of this book. It’s for you to find out, though. If you thought and guessed what the flow of the story will be, then I tell you … you may want to scratch that right now. THAT UNKNOWN PLANET IS JUST AMAZING! I thought it was probably just infested with aliens and creepy creatures … but not that one used in this story. It was definitely a very unique one! And oh, I forgot to mention this but there's also a paranormal-ish kind of element in here. It surely gave me goosebumps when we first come across that eerie stuff and thought that Lilac pretty much hit her head very hard. But all is well, guys. There's a big reason behind that one. The curveballs that the authors pulled were just downright UNPREDICTABLE. I was at the edge of my seat the whole time. These twists and turns towards the end part of the book may or may not have brought me to tears. Seriously. I didn’t saw those stuff coming my way. I was really questioning myself if that SPECIFIC scene really did happen while I was bawling my eyes out. My heart wasn’t prepared for those heart-breaking/warming scenes. So if you enjoy reading books having a cool plot with a survival-based theme in it, thrilling adventure and a dose of romance, then I definitely recommend this book for you to pick up! I’m really excited to read the next novel from this series and I’m hoping that it’ll be as awesome as this one. Bye x
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Sunday, January 19, 2014

Louder Than Love by Jessica TopperMy rating: 4 of 5 starsRamblings. Uhhh *waves* I'm back! Yes. I’m finally back after two weeks of ignoring Goodreads (LOL joke) of just being busy in real life which obviously led me into this semi-hiatus of writing book reviews. I read a couple of books during that time frame but because of time constraint and not really in the mood of writing, those books ended up just being rated. I do hope to be able to go back to those books later and still be able to write reviews for them. Louder than Love caught my attention when Aestas added this book to her to read list. I immediately checked the summary of the book and it sure did got me interested. With this being included in its blurb, “It's been over three years since a train accident made a widow of Katrina Lewis, sending her and her young daughter Abbey back to the suburban town of her youth...” I usually love books with kids involved in it because they bring this additional heart-warming element to the story. I’ve been reading this for a couple of days already but it’s just now that I finished it. *hides my face* I seem to get distracted with the Australian Open matches on our TV screens. Forgive me, but I’m a big fan of tennis that I try to watch the games on TV or on the internet whenever I have free time. That’s also prolly one of the reasons why I’m a no show here in Goodreads. Anyways, let’s get started with what I have to say to this book. Immediate thought after reading this book. HAHA wait. I definitely need to stop myself from replaying and laughing my ass off with that “fanboying” moment of Kevin towards the end part of the book. Tap tap tap, my immediate thought upon finishing this one was “Huhu, there’s no epilogue.”. My thoughts. Well, I must say that I really enjoyed reading this book. Louder than Love is a story about loss, dealing with the pain it has caused a person, finding strength in order to live and experiencing and giving love another shot. I’m happy that it’s not another case of “over the top” emotional kind of book. The drama involved here just fits the right dose of it given the premise of the book and with two mature people in the center of it.Kat, whoa she’s definitely a strong woman. Her character experienced a major curveball in her life and despite the shaky few years after it she was still able to face life day to day. Obviously, Kat needs to do some fighting with the ghosts of her past before she can fully get through it and live a healthy future with the ones she care and love. And that’s what we witness in this book. She may not have acknowledged and dealt with it in the earlier pages of the book but the moment it happened … read the book if you wanna know. But there’s this situation that I was kind of iffy about her character, it was when she ended up having dinner and kissing Adrian that same day she met him. Uhmm yeah, that was fast. But Karma kind of bit her in the ass for that. The kissing thing ended up … HAHA Sorry not going to spoil you, guys. Adrian “Digger” Graves. British, yes please! Readers will definitely learn mooooooooooooooore about Adrian’s past rather than Kat. We get the ins and outs of the Corroded Corpse (Adrian’s previous rock band), how he slipped into his drug addiction during their rock band days, his ex-wife and child and at the end of the day he’s just Adrian, a person who’s lonely and desperate to experience love and to be loved back. I love that he has this rock god status in the past and has this alter-ego (which Abbey love very much). And I love how the author managed to wrap that up in one person, which is in the person of Adrian. Adrian Graves who can manage thousands of teens to head bang and scream the lyrics of their songs at the top of their lungs in a jam-packed arena and at the same time, be able to enchant kids with his cutesy and kiddie songs inside a library. Abbey, Kat’s daughter is such an adorable child. She seems quite mature for her age and is always armed with all her questions about these and that that surrounds her. And she has this huge obsession with the TV show Maxwell MacGillikitty, Feline Private Eye. Apparently, Adrian was the one who sang the opening credits of the show and this was what sparked Kat’s interest (to track down and invite him to play in their local library). Aside from Kat and Adrian moments, Abbey and Adrian interactions were my favourites. Everything is just so cute. Abbey’s innocent questions and Adrian taking time to answer all of those in a simple and kiddie way are just precious. Let’s talk about Kevin. All throughout the book, his character was mentioned as a huge fan of the Corroded Corpse and complete with his room being quite a shrine dedicated to them. I never expected to actually meet his character so when he made this short appearance towards the end part ... I got the instantaneous feeling that his character is the one I felt most related to in this book. Kevin’s a true fanboy!!! His reaction towards Adrian and the whole band was just what I expected from him. Everything in that scene feels totally real. I feel you, Kevin. I gotta share this thing here. Based on my observation, there are different types of fans that exist in every fandom – the aggressive ones (fans who grab every opportunity to pounce on their favourite celebs), screaming fans (fans who can’t wait to destroy everyone’s eardrums), stuttering ones (I…uhhh..can’t, yeah) and the “I should just prolly keep quiet, speechless” fans. Luckily, as tested in I’m previous situations with these idols of mine I just ended up with the latter one. Seriously. I can’t afford embarrassing myself to them. I’ll probably be digging my own grave as soon something like that happens to me. Lastly, the ending. Not to worry, the book ended in a positive note. But, sigh. I hope the author really included an epilogue. She could’ve added a few more pages with a couple of months later after that last chapter. Don’t get me wrong, I like how this book ended but I think it would’ve amped up my “like meter” for this story if I knew what happened to these characters in the following months. Where did they ended up? Has Adrian moved to Lauder Lake already? How’s Abbey going to deal with this monumental change in her life? So yeah, I would’ve loved to see how those stuff play out. Bye x
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Monday, January 6, 2014

Pandora Ann Phillips' life is just normal-crazy.Her mom's a psychic, her dad's mom is a snob, her mom's parental units are "too down to earth" and her best friends are newlyweds. Okay, so her best friends being newlyweds isn't really abnormal, but living with them in a cramped two-bedroom apartment definitely is. Sex, sex, sex is totally on their minds. Actually it's not only on their minds, but it's on the kitchen table, couch, on top of the washer...well, you get the picture.
Being a celibate (not by choice, mind you) full-time college student, and an almost full-time barista, Pandora can't afford to lose anymore sleep. So, she seeks out a new place to lay her head. Enter three "drool worthy" male models that are looking for a fourth roommate and they want her...and won't take no for an answer. Hilarity ensues as Pandora's life turns completely upside down, and she begins to wonder if it will ever be the same again!Ramblings. I think, it was on January 3 that I first had the knowledge about this book. I saw a banner of it on Jennifer Armentrout's Facebook page and the tagline immediately caught my attention. In which, it eventually led me checking out the entire summary on Goodreads and of course adding it up on my to read list.

Immediate thought after reading this book. I definitely love the epilogue, that was totally a cute way to end this book. I had high hopes with this book, with what being featured in JLA's page and all, but it just wasn't able to live up to it. A few more tweaks here and there could've done something good to this book.

Story proper. Pandora "Dora" Philipps is in dire need of a new place if she wants to give herself some proper rest and sleep. WHY? Eh she's living with her two best friends who recently got married and youuuuu know... There's a lot thumping, moaning and screaming that is going on. Ughhh sooooo she really need to move out of the house ASAP!

As she was doing some grocery, she noticed a "roommate ad" and got really interested into it. Dora gave the number a call and was immediately invited to check out the place. Surprise surprise surprise. Only to be shocked that the place she's currently checking out is also the home "drool worthy" male models (Drew, Liam and Colin)... Aha! And that's where the story picks up.

What do you think will now happen to Dora? How will she deal with this craziness? How will these hot bods treat her? Join Dora as she deal with this testosterone filled and earth-shaking madness that she suddenly stumbled upon.

My thoughts. First and foremost, I just have to say that all of the my guesses and predictions were riiiiiight.

Lucky Number Four is an okay read for me (thumbs up for the hot bods, tho). This book got a small dose of humor and mystery and quite lot of romance (eh?), drama, craziness and relationships. I want to talk about these elements one by one. So, let's do this.

Humor. With a premise like that, I truly expected it to be loads of funnier than this. There's so much potential to the story where it could've ended up even funnier. I appreciate the effort of the author though and she still managed to make me laugh in some parts of the story. So we're still good. [Ssssh but I think Tahereh Mafi's tweets are funnier than this book.]

Mystery. This book is also injected with a mysterious feel to it. How? Most (or all) of the chapters ends with a mystery guy's POV. [Yes, a mystery guy if you don't really notice the clues that much or at least the actions of that guy character. Teehee, I correctly guessed the guy. Not that hard.] The purpose of it is to quite confuse the readers on who's the guy that is having those kinds of feelings towards Pandora. With three guys to choose from, that's quite a task to figure out orrrr not.

Romance. We got an insta-love on the part of the male character (won't mention the name). He got it bad upon meeting Pandora. Like wut?! How did that happen? I can't even fathom how this thing happen to him. Yes, Pandora's a breath of fresh air but uhhh that was really really really fast. For Pandora though, it's of a different story. She's got her eyes in one of her roommates but there wasn't any action coming from that particular dude. So, dropped. Then she suddenly feels something towards the OTHER one. That was fast again. This OTHER roommate of hers was the one that she keeps brushing off the entire time she was pinning over the first roommate. I don't know boy but there isn't anything. It plainly lacks depth in it.

Drama. Go figure! After the main couple of the story got together, obviously there's going to be some drama that will soon follow. I totally predicted how she will react and how the next few scenes of the story will play out. So yeah, I wasn't moved or got affected by the story. [I don't know if I should be happy about it or not. Ughhh the story gets predictable because my mind keeps on conjuring hunches and always getting ahead of me. And I always end up guessing it correctly.]

Craziness. Ha! The Grandmothers were always at each other's throats! Cat fight yesterday, today and tomorrow! If this is the funny element in here, nope. Not cool. It gets irritating after one fight after another. Her psychic mother and Pandora being an empath is pushing every aspect out/taking it too far. There's a part here in this book where she needs to figure out how to help Liam and Drew using her ability. I hope she didn't involve this thing. Sad.

Relationships. We are presented with all kinds of relationships here, which I really appreciate. We have best friends, roomies to fellow roomies, parents to their children, grandparents to everyone and lastly, couples. Oh wait. I also appreciate the author for having Liam's character in the story. That was actually good and a he was a great character to include in this story! :)

THE ENDING. Despite my problem with the romance department, I still love the ending part. I'm just a sucker for scenes like that! Read the book, so you'll know why.

After several days of waiting for the final piece of the puzzle ... We now have the entire cover for Abbi Gline's book - Take A Chance, which will be about Grant and Harlow. Ring any bells? No? Yes? There should be because we've already met them in the Too Far series.

Here's the final cover of @AbbiGlines' Take A Chance! And readers can expect to hear more news from Abbi soon.. pic.twitter.com/N82iKsLhKV

When Harlow Manning’s rocker father goes on tour, he sends her to Rosemary Beach, Florida, to live with her half-sister, Nan. The problem: Nan despises her. Harlow has to keep her head down if she wants to get through the next nine months, which seems easy enough. Until gorgeous Grant Carter walks out of Nan’s room in nothing but his boxer briefs.
Grant made a huge mistake getting involved with a girl with venom in her veins. He’d known about Nan’s reputation, but still he couldn’t resist her. Nothing makes him regret the fling more than meeting Harlow, who sends his pulse racing. Yet Harlow wants nothing to do with a guy who could fall for her wicked half-sister—even if there are no strings between Grant and Nan.
Grant is desperate to redeem himself in Harlow’s eyes, but did he ruin his chances with her before he even met her?From Abbi's blog: "February 25, 2014 – GRANT GET’S HIS BOOK! Take A Chance is the first of a two book deal for Grant and Harlow. One More Chance is their second book and it releases July 1, 2014." So better save those dates, fellow NA book nerds! :) x

Friday, January 3, 2014

When Hanley Helton discovers a boy living in her garage, she knows she should kick him out. But Nate is too charming to be dangerous. He just needs a place to get away, which Hanley understands. Her own escape methods (vodka, black hair dye, and pretending the past didn't happen) are more traditional, but who is she to judge?Nate doesn't tell her why he's in her garage, and she doesn't tell him what she's running from. Soon, Hanley's trading her late-night escapades for all-night conversations and stolen kisses. But when Nate's recognized as the missing teen from the news, Hanley isn't sure which is worse: that she's harboring a fugitive, or that she's in love with one.Ramblings. Ha! Yes, Where You’ll Find Me is still part of my "eliminating ARCs that are January releases" mission. This book will be released on January 7th. Thank you, Netgalley and Entangled Teen for this ARC. Immediate thought after reading this book. That sure was a very convenient, neat and HEA ending. I’ll try to elaborate on this statement later on. Story Proper. Flat out lie in front of her parents’ faces, sneak in and out of their house, acquire detentions and party hard are what Hanley Helton knows best after experiencing such a traumatic and unfaithful event in the past. Alongside with the company of her friends Rosalinda and Misty, she embarks on this routine to avoid remembering and temporarily numb the guilt that she’s been imposing on herself ever since THAT happened.

One night, as she was about to sneak out of their house through their garage … she discovers that there’s a stranger living in with them. Screaming isn’t an option for her, if she still wants to sneak out and attend a friend’s party. She obviously wants that, so she decided to just deal the matter with herself. It ended up with her still leaving and going to the party, while Garage Boy with no other option handed out to him left the safety of their house.

Hours after they’ve separated ways, Hanley is in the position of being utterly drunk and can’t even place the key in its lock. Enter Garage Boy and whooping in to save the drunken damsel in distress. Acts of kindness does pay up big time (or maybe it’s just Hanley’s fuzzy brain), Garage Boy aka Nate ended up having a shelter for the night. A night which eventually turned into a series of nights…

Where You’ll Find Me is a story that tackles family issues, extreme guilt built up from the past and deals with the bonds and relationships a person should have. Join Hanley and Nate as they unexpectedly experience comfort and understanding in each other’s arms. Witness them as they maneuver through their own unforgettable pasts and how they break free of it. My thoughts. This book is definitely a very fast paced one. I’m sure reader’s attention will immediately be captured because of how this book got started. Right off the bat, it will trigger you to keep on turning its pages. This one didn’t disappoint in sparking up my curiosity BUT sure enough there were parts of the book were I had problems with. Thus, the reason for my rating. Here you go… Hanley’s reaction when she discovered Nate was not just realistic to me. Seriously? If I’m in her position, there are two possible things that I would’ve done: (1) screamed already at the top my lungs and waking up the entire neighbourhood or (2) stunned, figure a way to make myself move and grab the attention of my parents. THERE’S. A. FREAKIN’. STRANGER. IN. OUR. HOUSE. Hellooooo?! I wouldn’t even worry if I’m gonna be busted by my parents for sneaking out, as long as I tell them truth on what’s happening. And I wouldn’t even care if that stranger looks like a sex God! Just because he’s hot and charming, it doesn’t diminish the idea of him being dangerous and a threat to you and your family.

Hanley’s past. Readers will immediately take a hint that there’s something big that happened to Hanley it’s of the question of WHAT that’s you’re going to crave for during the course of the book. But here comes where I find the problem with the execution for the part of this book… Yes, Hanley’s back story was mentioned in the book but it wasn’t given that great EMPHASIS. It could've been explored a lot more. The way it was presented was just a normal narration; I didn’t feel any ounce of pity or anything towards Hanley. It sort of just became secondary to Nate’s. With no emphasis about her past, it was still used as backbone idea that will knock some sense into the characters. Therefore, the idea that will weave everything. (So, what if nobody remembers and took notice of Hanley’s past because of how bland it was presented … uh oh, there you go.)

Nate. Nate's character will be the reader's driving force to continue on reading the story. There's so much mystery surrounding his character and just want to figure him all out. Questions like, why is he living in Hanley’s garage? Who is he running from? What could he possibly have done that will lead him to live in someone’s garage rather than stay in his own home? See.

Hanley and Nate. This is a case of insta-love. And this is a stupid kind of one, because of their situation. I can’t even fathom the idea of having a relationship with a total stranger. Yes, you may be having a conversation but given the scenes that I’ve read in this book, there’s no depth in those conversations. And yes, Hanley maybe revealing and divulging her past/problems to Nate but on the other hand Nate doesn’t do that. Things that they talked about were just the normal and superficial stuff.

Hanley’s relationship with her parents, Heather (sister) and friends (Rosalinda and Misty). This is the part of the book that I like the most. We see their relationships and their characters grow in this book. Heather and Hanley treats each other like sisters already rather than just continuing their non-existent relationship from the beginning of time. Rosalinda and Hanley opens up more towards the end of the book and creates this big step in their friendship.

THE Ending. Fletcher truly pushed it too far in the HEA zone for my liking. In my opinion, I would’ve liked it far better if she just omitted the last chapter. The book could’ve just ended with the hopeful note and leaning in towards a HEA, which (I think) Chapter 24 already gave. But then she decided to pull that last chapter, which just catapulted it to a mushy and convenient ending. *I received an ARC of this book from Netgalley and the publisher for an honest review*Rating: 2.5 out of 5 starsThis review is also posted on my Goodreads account.
Bye x

Wednesday, January 1, 2014

The only thing rock star Marcus Troy loves more than making music is his kids. So finding just the right nanny to take on tour with them is important—as is proving to his ex he deserves joint custody. Falling for his employee wouldn’t just be fodder for the paparazzi: it could ruin everything.
Too bad the perfect nanny turns out to be beautiful, vibrant Ryan Evans. Ryan’s never left her small Montana town before, so she jumps at the chance to see the country. And as much as accidental fame doesn’t gel with shy Ryan, what does is her relationship with her capricious, smoking-hot, shockingly good dad of a boss. Marcus is nothing like what she expected. But when the whole world’s watching them, will life in the spotlight be too hot to handle?

Ramblings. December 2013 has been a great month for me in terms of my relationship with Netgalley. Ha ha ha. It was in that month when most of my requests for ARCs got approved. Woot woot! But here's something that I did which may come across as hilarious. With several months already registered in that site and not a single request that I made got approved, I did this random clicking on loads of titles and just testing if they'll approve it. Then one day when I checked my email address ... I was quite shocked when a number of confirmation messages appeared on my inbox. That's what landed me in this current situation I'm in. Yep, I'm currently in this "eliminating ARCs that are January releases" phase. Love Songs for the Roar is one of those, this will be released in January 13th.

Immediate thought after reading this book. Well, that was predictable. But I quite enjoyed it and the last part did bring some emotions out of me. My thoughts. Ooookay. Most of the books that I've been reading lately has this issue with time. I'm not against in reading a book which is fast paced but it just doesn't fit this genre. I believe that time is very essential from the exact moment the book's main characters meet until the moment they've realized that there's an attraction/compatibility between them or even the time they act on it already. Because during that specific time frame, readers will be treated on how they cultivated and build their relationship. It isn't something we can fast track and not necessarily prolong, but at least give the readers the sense that these two are really for each other and there's depth to their relationship. In this book, it seems like everything happened in a flash. I would love to have more content and juice to it. Tour Bubble. Noticing how fast their relationship escalated, I was quite afraid that everything will happen or their story will end upon the last show of Marcus. And here's the good thing about this book, it didn't. Why am I happy about that? Because in those tour days they've been living inside a bubble and maybe it was just that which might have caused their attraction. With always being around each other and closed off to the real world can certainly fuel something. In here, Farrah Taylor this time around gave us some scenes wherein these characters were apart, back to the real open world and taking in some time to reflect on their feelings towards each other. So, that's a plus to this book.

Ryan Evans. I love her character. Why? Because she isn't this girl who was easily swayed and will drop everything she wanted to be in her life just because she's in a relationship with a celebrity. She stood her ground and showed that she valued her own person. Marcus Troy. I'm definitely in love with those scenes which involve Marcus and his kids. It's great that he's got this rock star image but still can be a cool dad. In this book, it truly shows how Marcus adores his kids and will fight to the ends of the Earth to be with them. And his kids are soooo adorable. Charlotte acting like an adult, busting Ryan and Marcus holding hands is just a precious and certainly a LOL moment! Miles just being Miles, who's always in a sugar rush with everything he eats or drinks ... yep jumping up and down or running around the tour bus. As a whole, I had a good time reading this book. It's a super short read which you can finish reading under two to three hours, I think. *I received an ARC of this book from Netgalley and the publisher for an honest review*Rating: 3 out of 5 starsThis review is also posted on my Goodreads account. Bye x

I didn't know that this book belongs to a series and so basically the ending killed me - cliffhanger! But surely, Love Me Never is worth the read!!! I love the narrations and dialogues in this book that it even brought me to tears while ...

I'm typing this in at 2:30 am. I just finished reading Paper Princess and my goodness, my heart was beating so loudly because of those last few pages!!! I got the feeling that something's about to happen but I seriously never saw that on...